Reading Remnant's Phantom Thieves
by Timeless Dreamer Neo
Summary: Two authors of questionable sanity forces Team RWBY, Team JNPR, Qrow Branwen, and Ozpin to read a story about the most peculiar thieves to ever exist. Co-written by swift56
1. Prologue and Trailer

**TDN: *appears on the stage through a rip in space* Hey everybody, this is Timeless Dreamer Neo and swift56, bringing you this brand new Reading story.**

 **Swift56: *zooms by, crashes into wall* this shit is going to be funny!**

 **TDN: I know, right? And this ideas been cooking in our heads for quite some time, so we hope you all enjoy.**

 **Swift56: *peels himself off the wall* let's get the ball rolling! *gets rolled over by an actual giant ball***

 **TDN: *peels Swift off the floor and pumps him full of air to help regain shape* We...really should do something about those traps… (the scene fades to black as the show starts)**

 **\- break -**

"Oh man this is going to be good." Swift says with a grin as he watches the last of the group be put down on a sofa.

"It certainly will. This has to be one of Phoenix's best ideas yet." Dreamer chuckled. "Now then, is everything in order?"

"Pretty much. By the way, what should we wake them up with? I got an idea but I want to hear yours first." Swift asked his co-host with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, I could change the room to an ocean for a moment then change it back. I rigged Accel World's stage change system onto the room for the heck of it. Mother of all cold water bucket awakenings." Dreamer snickered.

"I was thinking of playing Wake up, Get up, Get out there at full blast, considering what we're watching." Swift said plainly.

"Your idea sounds better. Start it nice and slow first then turn it up right at the 'wake up, get up' part." Dreamer suggested.

Swift cackles lowly at that, before putting a CD into his sound system and placing ear muffs on his head, handing Dreamer a pair as he started the song. They then waited for a small time, the lyrics starting, until they hit the title lyrics, where the volume went full blast and woke everyone up in a catastrophe, which just made Swift cackle even more, while Dreamer burst out laughing.

"Oh my sides! We may want a happy ending for everyone, but that sure ain't gonna stop us from being Trolls when the chance comes!" Dreamer laughed out loud.

"Loki's got nothing on me!" Swift said with a laugh as he finally lowered the volume.

"So, what are the odds we're gonna walk right into a burning Yang? Want me to get marshmallows ready?" Dreamer chuckled, seeing their guests start to calm down.

"Let's not be dicks as well." Swift said with a shake of his head as they walked into the separate reading room "I gotta juggle three Remnant groups right now."

"Fair enough. Come on, time to 'face the music'." Dreamer snickered again, seeing as the music WAS what they just used.

"I have water buckets ready to douse Yang if she gets out of hand." Swift muttered as they entered the room.

[hr]

The last thing Ruby Rose remembered was going to bed after a long day, namely finally capturing Roman Torchwick. Her sleep was peaceful, and even when she heard some light music, she didn't think much about it, and even thought it sounded kinda nice. Of course that all changed when….

"WAKE UP, GET UP, GET OUT THERE! SWATTING LIES IN THE MAKING-!"

The music suddenly got turned up full blast.

"Yaaaaggghhh!" she shouted in surprise, something that everyone in the room did as well.

The volume slowly started to turn down, but the damage was done, and everyone was awake, but the worst of them was Blake, who was covering her extra ears with a pillow that she had been hugging in her sleep.

Then there was how the others all ended up.

Such as Jaune spazzing out from the sudden awakening and his hand landing right in his partner's breasts, making said spartan girl freeze with an atomic blush.

Yang actually fell off the sofa she was on, dragging Weiss down with her, the white themed girl ending up back to back on top of the yellow themed one.

Nora jumped into Ren's arms, making him fall backwards, thus sending the sofa backwards, and making Jaune and Pyrrha fall as well, which changed their position again.

Qrow jumped up and reached for his weapon, only to grasp at air, and then look around, while Ozpin adjusted his glasses that had nearly fallen off from the rude awakening.

"Goood morning, I trust that song got you all nice and awake," Dreamer chuckled as he and Swift stepped into the room.

Swift opted to look behind the fallen backwards Sofa, and just grinned as he saw something unexpected "Dude, look, Arkos is already a thing." he said to Dreamer as he pointed at Jaune and Pyrrha who were locked in an accidental kiss.

"Now the million dollar question is, will this get through their thick heads?" Dreamer snickered at the sight. He personally supported that pairing...hence why he had a small chip on his shoulder for how THAT ended in the main timeline.

"I'll break their legs if they don't start dating after this!" Nora said as she shot up with a grin.

"Atta girl!" Swift exclaimed in approval.

"Hey Swift, just between you and me, you think Nora's a 'Breaker'? You know what I'm talking about," Dreamer whispered.

Swift just stared at him in confusion, hoping for him to elaborate.

"...fourth wall," Dreamer deadpanned.

"Oh, easy to find out. Nora, where's the camera?" Swift asked the crazy bomber girl.

Nora simply pointed to where the camera was, as she then looked at it and waved, where as everyone else saw her pointing at thin air.

"...okay, glad to have that question answered…" Dreamer muttered. "Now, enough with the idle chat. I trust you all are wondering 'who the hell these two guys are?' and 'where the fuck are we?' and 'how the heck did we get here?' or something along those lines, right?" he addressed the guests.

"Before that, how many of you bet that those two would end up dating before the first year was over?" Swift asked, and Yang, Nora, Blake and Ozpin raised their hands, the first two with big grins, the third with a stoic face, the fourth with an amused smile as he looked at his frozen students, who were just looking at each other in the eye, still lip locked.

"Are they gonna be ok?" Ruby wondered as she stared at her friends.

"Dreamer, bucket of water please." Swift said.

"You got it," Dreamer nodded, and to the gathered guests, he pulled out a...short, almost dagger-like sword that was shaped like a quill. Before their eyes, Dreamer traced a couple of shapes, which then materialized into two buckets of ice cold water, which he handed to Swift.

Swift grinned as he threw one onto the two stunned teens, keeping the other for an emergency. The effect was immediate, as Jaune pulled back and started apologizing nonstop, only for Pyrrha to finally gather up her courage and pull him back in for a makeout session.

"There's a room right there." Swift said in deadpan, as he suspected clothes were about to be thrown off unless he stopped them… but he felt like letting nature run it's course, so Pyrrha pulled Jaune into that room, which Swift soundproofed while also putting a speaker in it so they could hear them speak.

"That seriously just happened, huh?" Dreamer deadpanned. "Well, whatever. Those two needed to finally realize it anyway. Now then, I'm sure you've all got questions, including the above mentioned ones, right?"

"Yeah… at least I ain't pissed off anymore, cuz, in retrospect, that was a funny way to wake up." Yang said with a snicker as she pulled her top down a bit as it had rided up somewhat.

"At least now those two are dating, less sexual tension in the dorm." Ren said with a sigh as he and Nora put the sofa back in it's place.

"No need to worry about any Arkos babies anytime soon by the way, I made sure that if anything like that happened, Pyrrha wouldn't be getting pregnant today." Swift said as he hiked a thumb at the door.

"Or ever while anyone is here," Dreamer sighed. "Most of our guests are still teenagers, that's not an age anyone should be raising children. I've seen enough stories where that causes problems down the road, so I improved on your feature."

"Thank you. While Beacon is equipped to help teenage parents, I'd rather if my students remained careful." Ozpin said with a nod.

"That so? Well good on you. You'd be surprised how many schools just look at that like its their problem and leave it at that," Dreamer smiled slightly. "Anyway, I just realized. We never got to setting up the equipment. Mind if I go take care of that, Swift? I trust you can explain the full situation to them, though I'll still be able to hear what's going on and chime in if needs be," Dreamer asked.

"Yeah, and you can grab any of my troops to give you a helping hand, I got this." Swift said as he pulled up a chair.

"Thanks, but I'm good," Dreamer nodded, before pulling out his sword again, and slashing at air, opening a tear in space to which he stepped through. "I shouldn't be long," his voice rang out as the tear closed.

"So, first, my name's Swift, and my pal is Dreamer, you can think of us as Observer gods, looking over certain sectors of the multiverse and keeping them in check. Though sometimes we do step in personally." Swift added that last part in a mutter "As for why you're here, we figured you deserved a reward for stopping the breach in downtown Vale, and to let you rest up a bit before you all get a surprise mission to head into the Emerald Forest."

"Huh?" Ruby said plainly.

"The next thing you're doing before the Vytal Festival is checking out the Emerald Forest, trust me, it's important." Swift explained without giving away too much, Ruby nodding in understanding. "Alright, so, your reward is basically letting you all take a look at an alternate timeline of you world, which could show you some future events and help you prepare for them."

"That certainly sounds helpful when you put it that way. In what format will be observing this?" Weiss asked.

"You'll be reading a book, but it'll also show up on a TV for visual reference." Swift clarified. On cue, a big flat screen TV came out of a portal, and landed neatly at one side of the room, followed by a stereo next to it.

"Hah! Perfect landing, knew I'd get it right this time!" came Dreamer's satisfied chuckle, before the portal closed.

"What can expect from this other world?" Blake wondered.

"Anything gruesome?" Qrow added, not wanting his youngest niece to see anything too bad.

"Nothing of the sort. We'll be following the heists committed by a group of thieves, and before you say anything Weiss, these thieves don't kill, only steal. Plus, they aren't really bad people." Swift explained, cutting off the heiress as she opened her mouth.

"Huh, don't have anything to ask about the story, but how long do you think they'll take?" Nora said as she pointed at the door.

"Probably an hour. You can all go get dressed in the meantime and shower as well, breakfast is ready too, so you can all eat once you're done." Swift said, and everyone finally remembered they were in their pajamas, save for Qrow who was always ready for action.

"We take special requests too, so want anything in particular? The chef here makes EVERYTHING," came Dreamer's voice as another portal appeared, which deposited a...snack cabinet?

"You can just request stuff while you're in the shower, and we'll hear it, yes we can hear you, but don't worry, we can't see you." Swift explained, and calmed their fears a bit.

"We're trolls, not sickos," came Dreamer's voice as he deposited pillows and a few more chairs, various types of chairs.

"...is that my office chair?" Ozpin couldn't help but blink at one of the chairs deposited.

"We figured you'd be taking a lot of notes, so…" Swift trailed off as Ozpin's desk popped out as well.

"Well… I suppose that would be a good idea." Ozpin mused.

"Hehe, trust me, you'll LOVE some of the stuff you're gonna see," came Dreamer's voice again, before he came out of the portal, carrying a book, which allowed everyone to see the title. 'Remnant's Phantom Thieves'. "I also got the perfect music for this," he added, pulling out a CD labeled 'Perfect Persona 5 soundtrack'.

"Nice idea." Swift said with a nod.

"Right, so you guys go ahead and freshen up and have a nice meal. We'll be ready whenever," Dreamer nodded, before a DJ booth appeared in front of him. "I'll put on the right tunes as the story needs. Nothing beats good BGM for a story."

"And don't worry about the lovebirds in that room, they'll be ready by the time you're back." Swift added with a chuckle as everyone got up and left the room.

[hr]

Swift chuckled as everyone came back into the room, with a few looking at the slightly disheveled pair of Jaune and Pyrrha, with Jaune having some obvious lipstick marking on his neck, and Pyrrha had some hickeys on hers.

As if to further underline the look, Dreamer played a voice clip. "Mwehehehe~" it snickered, with an odd tone that sounded like a cat's voice.

Swift chuckled a bit at that "Right, enough with the teasing, at least they're a couple now."

"Sorry, couldn't resist," Dreamer chuckled. "Gotta admit they took long enough." Dreamer gave a thumbs up.

"Could have been worse." Swift said with a shrug "But anyway, now that you all ate, yes so did these two, I dropped food in their room, we can start this up, so, you want the honors Dreamer?"

"Thanks." Dreamer nodded, before he started up the music, specifically the same one they used to wake them up. "Presenting a brand new story by Phoenix Champion. A tale of heroes, from both sides of the law." he said dramatically as the screen showed a city in red, with several people jumping here and there throughout town. "I present, a crossover of RWBY and Persona 5!" he said, as a figure jumped on a train on the screen, before dramatically removing his mask, and jumping off, followed by a flash of something as a winged figure flew up, and the screen soon scrambled as the title appeared: Remnant's Phantom Thieves. In the same script as Persona 5's title name at that.

Swift blinked at the last part "Oh hey, you edited the original clip a bit." he said in pleasant surprise.

"This was only the most hyped game of the last 5 years. I couldn't NOT do something special for it." Dreamer said, as he ducked into his booth then came out wearing a number of Persona related merchandise. "I'm a big fan." he said before ducking in again and coming out back to normal.

"That's pretty cool." Yang said with a laugh while Ruby stared at the booth, wondering what else he could pull out of it, and Weiss and Blake were mostly bewildered by it.

The others were mixed in their reactions, but were all in those three groups.

"I have figures mostly, and an Evoker." Swift said thoughtfully before shaking his head to get back on track "Anyway, you all heard the man. And since I know it's coming, RWBY is the name of a show on our world that follows the adventure of all of you."

"So, we're truly watching Thieves then." Weiss said with a sigh as everyone sat down.

"Who knows, maybe we'll learn a thing or two from them." Ruby said with a shrug.

Suddenly Dreamer was in their faces, causing them to backpedal in surprise. "Thieves?! Blasphemy! A simple thief can never match up to the mystique and cool that is them. They are not thieves! They are Phantom Thieves! Even if you know they're coming, they will still succeed and capture the target, while putting on a show for the entire world to enjoy!" he said dramatically. Then blinked when he realized what he'd just done. Coughing slightly, he went back to his booth. "Ahem. Phantom Thieves are awesome. End of story."

Swift had to hold back from laughing himself silly at how passionate Dreamer got about the subject, before he cleared his throat "Want to be the first to read Dreamer? You can set the music to automatic."

"Nah, I'm good. I already read this a few times, so I wouldn't be able to capture the emotions from the first time reading. Just leave the music to me." he politely declined.

"Alright then, I guess I'll start, and we'll settle the order at the end of this." Swift said as he cracked open the book.

 **[Atlas: Goldan family mansion]**

Weiss raised an eyebrow as she tried to remember that family name "That doesn't actually ring a bell."

"Yeah, you can expect the possibility of unknown names popping up sometimes." Swift told her.

On cue, Dreamer played some music. It was...an oddly relaxing tune. (insert Persona 4 OST: specialist) "Just something to set the mood before the fun starts." he chuckled.

 **[Time: 11:32 P.M.]**

 **[No P.O.V.]**

 **Two men wearing thick black coats with fur edges with hoods drawn over their heads are standing guard at the front door of a large Atlesian mansion, they were holding Altas Standard issue Assault Rifles and were wearing goggles to keeps the currently falling snow out of their eyes.**

 **"Man I gotta get onto the day shift soon." One of them said all of a sudden, "I mean I haven't spent much time with my wife and daughter since I took this job"**

 **The other guard looked at his partner, "You might be in luck, that Mister Goldan has started the change out all his night shift guards for Atlesian Knights, I even hear he's gotten himself a few of the newer models for the more important locations." The other said.**

"Great, Jimmy is going to feel seriously validated from that." Qrow said with a groan.

 **"You think that's a good idea?" The first guard asked, "I mean yeah he doesn't really have to pay a robot a salary, but truth be told I never really trusted machines. They could get hacked or broken or glitched or all sorts of things. As much as I'd like day shift I think Mr. Goldan's getting a little careless in his defenses by having a bunch of robots do them."**

"He's got a point. I can get robot soldiers to fight the Grimm, but what is with Atlas and their seemingly all purpose bots? Not like they were having a shortage of live help, right?" Dreamer mused.

"This is why I find Jimmy to be so stupid sometimes." Qrow said with a nod.

 **"Personally, while I don't care about working the night shift, I wouldn't mind a Knight taking over this post, I haven't had feeling in my toes for a week now." The other guard said.**

 **"You should probably get that checked out." The first guard pointed out.**

 **What the guards were unaware of was that there was a figure running across the arches in front of the building.**

Weiss narrowed her eyes as she looked at the screen, trying to make out the figure.

"They're rather good." Ren commented.

Suddenly Dreamer cut the music and replaced it with...something else. "Show time." The grin on his face looked ready to split his head in half.

 **[OST: P5: Life Will Change]**

Ruby, Yang, Jaune and Nora all started bobbing their heads to the beat of the tune, while everyone else had to agree it sounded catchy.

 **The figure was that of a young man with shaggy black hair, he wore an open chested black trench coat with a tail that was cut into three parts over gray collared shirt, black trousers, brown cuban heeled boots, and a pair of red gloves. Over his face the man wore a white bird shaped mask with black interior that covered only his eyes.**

"That doesn't do much to hide his identity." Weiss said as she looked at the small mask.

"Superman only had glasses as Clark Kent and nobody figured HIM out. A domino mask would be an unbreakable disguise compared to that." Dreamer snickered.

"He's got you there." Ruby said, and she looked away nervously when Weiss turned at her with a light glare.

"The coat's pretty cool." Jaune added idly.

"Makes him look all mysterious." Nora said with a small grin.

 **The man then ran across the arch and jumped onto a balcony of the building and easily pushed the glass doors open.**

 **"Glad to see Goldan didn't realize he should check to make sure everything was locked when he left for his little vacation." A young girl's voice said within the man's head, "Alright Joker, you remember where the target was right?"**

To the assembled guests' surprise, there was an outline of a person's head, albeit one covered in shadow, and a text box next to the person with the line that was just said, there was even a name over the text box, albeit one that was written as "?".

"Uh, what's up with that?" Yang asked in confusion.

"What, did you think you'd learn everyone's names so easily?" Swift answered with a smirk.

"All characters that have not been properly introduced will be shadowed and/or have their names hidden until they are properly introduced." Dreamer nodded. "Where's the fun in spoilers, even if you learn about them almost immediately."

 **The now named Joker smirked, "I remember Oracle." Joker said quietly as he slipped into what appeared to be the master bedroom.**

There was another close up image on the side, this time of Joker as he spoke.

"Case in point. Anyone who's already been introduced properly will be properly revealed." Dreamer said.

 **"Good, Queen and Mona will be waiting by the garage for the escape, Fox, Panther, Skull and Noir will meet up with you after you've gotten the target and will cover you on your escape." the now named Oracle said.**

"What's up with all the weird names?" Ruby wondered.

"My guess is that their codenames." Qrow expressed his idea, looking at the two hosts for confirmation.

"Dreamer, play the sound." Swift said with a chuckle.

Dreamer chuckled and pressed a button (there were a LOT of buttons on his booth), one conveniently labeled 'bingo'. There was a bell like 'ding ding' that sounded like a correct answer response in a cheesy game show. "Bingo. It's not good for thieves to refer to each other by their real names. What those real names are...you'll have to wait and see yourself." he smirked.

 **Joker nodded and quietly pushed open the door out of the bedroom, before peeking out the the side.**

 **On his left was an Atlesian Knight Model #130, it's back turned to him.**

 **Joker smirked as he quickly leapt onto the Knights shoulders and pulled out his weapon, a small single edged dagger, and quickly stabbed the AK in the underside of the head before tearing upward, disabling the droids vocal systems before disabling the droid altogether.**

"Joker wins! Fatality!" Dreamer cackled at the sight of the destroyed droid, getting a chuckle or two at his joke.

Ruby looked at the weapon with an analytical look, before frowning "It's not really impressive."

"It could be some kind of trick. He uses something that looks normal, to make his enemies underestimate him." Blake supplied her theory.

"Plus it's practical." Dreamer chimed in. "A dagger might not be as fancy as a scythe or a rapier, but it still gets the job done. Stick in the right place and anything will die."

 **Joker jumped off the falling AK dashed to the corner of the hall, peeking over he saw another Knight, this one not looking in his direction, and several tables between him and it.**

 **Smirking Joker dashed into the shadows of one of the tables, becoming coated in the shadows of the table, Joker then dashed from table to table in a black blur, soon enough reaching the AK, which had turned around to check the other side of the hall, completely moving past Joker without noticing him.**

"He's rather impressive, to say the least." Pyrrha said with a surprised blink.

"How is he moving so well with his position though?" Ren wondered, gesturing to Joker's crouched position, which moved quickly between hiding spots with barely a sound.

"My guess. Practice, talent, and a good dose of magic." Dreamer deadpanned. "What? You think he wears those clothes cause of his fashion sense? They're 'special'."

"Special how?" Nora asked eagerly.

"Nope, we are not explaining that right now, way too big." Swift said strictly.

 **Dashing out of his hiding spot Joker ran down the hall before turning into the library, shutting the door behind him and running toward a small bust of a young woman's head and chest. Joker grabbed the lower jaw of the woman and pulled it down, which actually revealed it to be a hidden switch as one of the nearby bookshelves pushed forward at an angle slightly.**

"How original." Yang said sarcastically.

 **"Why do big mansions like these always have secret rooms in the library?" Oracle asked rhetorically, "Well, at least the guy didn't move the thing."**

"Hey, an echo." Dreamer chuckled. He loved that gag.

 **Joker stepped into the hidden room and walked over to a small wooden box in the middle of the room, which was surrounded by a case of glass, "I don't see a switch or anything." Joker mused.**

 **"Then that means the glass isn't locked down." Oracle said, "No... He's installed a DNA scanner on the glass, there's no way we're taking that without triggering an alarm."**

"A smart decision." Weiss said with a nod of approval.

"But probably a useless one." Yang countered with a grin, making Weis huff.

 **"Where are Skull, Panther, Fox, and Noir?" Joker asked quietly.**

 **"Close enough." Oracle said, "Ready to run?"**

 **Instead of replying Joker pulled out his dagger again, however in less than a second a casing shot up over the edge of the dagger as if folded down to the back, then the blade extended forward a fair bit, this had caused the dagger to look like nothing more than a simple handgun.**

Ruby looked it over again, smiling slightly "Huh, that's a bit more interesting now."

 **Joker then smashed the glass with the gun, which caused an alarm to sound throughout the mansion, and quickly grabbed the small box and tucked it under his arm just as two AK130's burst into the library and saw him in the hidden room.**

 **"Intruder, identify yourself and put down the property in your hands." One of the said.**

 **Joker's answer came in the form of a sudden bullet being fired from his gun, which wasn't silenced apparently. The bullet tore through the head of one of the AK's disabling it.**

"Boom! Headshot!" Dreamer cackled again. He seemed to...enjoy seeing AKs being smashed.

"Hell yeah!" Yang shouted with a grin.

 **"Intruder, you have committed a hostile action, prepare for-" The other started, but was cut off by a shotgun blast that tore off half it's back, more than enough to disable it.**

 **"You're not slacking are you? You could have totally taken both down without my help." Said the newcomer.**

"Ya know, is it just me, or are those things pretty...fragile?" Dreamer mused, referring to how easily the AKs were being taken apart. "Let me guess...cost saving?"

Ozpin sighed, nodding slightly, even he thought that Ironwood's decision was rather stupid.

"Guess old tin man figured he'd Zerg Rush the Grimm." Dreamer chuckled. "And for anyone who doesn't know that that means, it basically means overwhelming enemies through sheer numbers." he finished, getting a bark of laughter from Qrow.

 **Like Joker this was a young man, however he hand short, spiky, blonde hair and was wearing a black leather jacket and black pants that had knee pads, a red ascot, combat boots, a pair of yellow gloves, on his face was a dark grey mask shaped like a skull, minus a lower jaw.**

Yang looked him over, nodding at his look. "Not bad." she said with a small smirk.

 **In his hands was a pump action shotgun, however with a quick flick of his arm the barrel closed off and the pump of the shotgun split into four segments that shifted to the end of the barrel and ended up the same distance around the barrel from each other, the former pump of the shotgun then segmented further and flipped around to reveal ridges that reconnected to form a club that would certainly hurt to be hit by. This change took less than a second to happen.**

Ruby grinned a bit as she nodded at the weapon "It's simple, but it works as a heavy hitter."

"Trust me, there's a heavier hitter." Swift muttered.

Everyone looked at him in confusion for that comment.

 **"Figured you'd like a shot at them Skull." Joker said smirking.**

 **"Whatever, you got it?" The now named Skull asked, and was given the answer by Joker lifting the box he had taken, "Nice, now let's go before more trouble get's here."**

 **With that Joker and Skull ran out of the room, soon finding two more destroyed AK130's, one that was cut clean in half, the other had several dozen bullet holes in it, and two more people standing over them.**

Blake felt a shiver go down her spine when she saw the cut, being reminded of someone she would rather forget.

 **The first was yet another young man, this one with dark blue hair and he wore black jumpsuit that had a high upturned collar on it and baggy forearms, white motorcycle boots that reached his knees, blue gloves on his hands, a blue and white striped waist sash, and clipped to the back of that sash was a long white fox tail that had a red ribbon wrapped around it on his face was a white fox mask that covered his whole face.**

Everyone blinked at his appearance. "Well… that's obviously Fox." Weiss said simply.

"I'll admit they weren't the most creative for some of their thief names, but to be fair, they still did a good job making them sound cool." Dreamer chuckled.

 **In his hands was a katana that was sheathed, said sheath had a trigger just near the hilt, which so long as the sword was sheathed, could have the weapon spun around to double as an assault rifle given that part of the sheath can be removed to change out the weapons magazine, that part of the sheath is wider than the rest of it.**

Blake just stared at the weapon. "He even has the same weapon." she muttered.

 **The other figure was a woman with long pale blonde hair that was tied up in wavy ponytails, her outfit was a skin tight red leather catsuit worn with a matching red panther mask that cover her upper face, it had a cleavage cutout, several zippers on the front and with is she wore pink gloves that almost reached her elbows and dark red thigh-high boots clipped to her lower back, just under the tail bone, was a panther's tail the same color as the suit.**

There were a few awkward blushes from her outfit, while Blake had a blank stare, not sure if this was racist or not.

"Reminder: The clothes are special. She's not wearing that cause she wants to." Dreamer chuckled at the looks.

"Not racist then I suppose." Blake muttered in relief.

 **In her hand was an SMG, but with a quick flick of her hand it segmented into a long whip, leaving the trigger and ammo magazine with it's grip.**

"Looks like Glynda has competition for the dominatrix look." Qrow said with a snicker.

"Be glad I didn't bring her, or I'd let her hit you for that one." Swift said dryly, with Qrow laughing awkwardly.

 **"I suppose there wasn't a way to get the box without triggering an alarm?" The one with the fox tail asked.**

 **"Fox, if he could have avoided the alarm he wouldn't have triggered it." The cat suited woman said.**

 **"I suppose you're right Panther." Fox admitted, "But we better clear out before the police arrive."**

 **"Noir's on her way to the garage right now." Oracle announced to the group, "You guy's had better get there too."**

 **The group nodded to each other before sprinting down the hall, no longer caring just how much noise they made, and any AK130 that did come in front of them was shot down.**

"Somebody stop them~" Dreamer cackled again, emulating a certain green headed, yellow suited reality warper. It was obvious he was enjoying this a lot.

 **The group then arrived at the doors that were no doubt the garage, in front of it they saw a young woman cut one last AK130 in half with a battle axe.**

 **The woman had curly chin length hair that a light auburn color, which was hidden under a mauve cavalier hat with a plumed feather, she had on a long sleeved light pink blouse with a cravat, black corset vest, puffy mauve shorts, black pantyhose with identically colored shoes, a holster belt carrying ammo, more specifically grenade launcher rounds, with her hands covered in purple gloves, on her face was a black bandit's mask that covered her eyes.**

Ren looked at the ammo and hung his head in his hands "Oh Oum no, not another one." he muttered.

"Don't worry, she's not as trigger and explosion happy," Dreamer said, earning a small nod from Ren.

 **Her battle axe had only one blade, but a long handle and where the second blade would have been was a chamber for grenades, as she rested it on her shoulder it easily collapsed down to a grenade launcher.**

 **"Nice one Noir." Skull cheered out.**

 **"These things are easy compared to Shadows." The now name Noir said with a grin on her face, "Even the Grimm are tougher than these guys."**

"So they've fought against Grimm before at least." Ozpin said in interest.

"At least that means they aren't on _her_ side." Qrow muttered.

"What are Shadows though?" Jaune said in confusion.

"Secret for now." Swift said with a grin.

 **"That's for sure." Oracle said, "Wait... I'm getting a reading from the other side of that door."**

 **"An actual human guard?" Noir asked aloud, as all the group could hear Oracle.**

 **"No, I'm sensing a strong Aura, I'm thinking a Huntsman." Oracle said.**

"Boss fight!" Dreamer cackled, before ducking into his booth and coming out in...riot armor? And why was Swift also wearing one? "We like living." Dreamer cackled when he saw the looks of confusion. He was clearly enjoying seeing them get more confused.

 **"What? You mean Goldan's had a Huntsman in his back pocket this whole time?" A new female voice said from Oracle's side, "Mona, get the van ready, we're coming for pick up."**

 **"Oh no." Oracle moaned.**

Everyone was confused at the sound Oracle made.

As if to answer the question, Dreamer and Swift just pointed at Yang, with Ruby making a sound of understanding. "Ah, makes you want to hurl." she said, with Yang looking at her in offense.

 **The group within the building nodded to each other as Joker kicked the door to the garage open.**

 **Inside were two of the new model AK200's, much sleeker and brighter than the 130's, however standing between them was a woman with white hair that was tied up in an off center bun, uniformed in a white coat with a red brooch covering her neck, her coat left part of her upper arms exposed and she had black gloves covering her hands, garter belts being incorporated into her pants. In this woman's hands was a white sabre that had dust chambers built into it.**

At this point Swift had gotten behind Dreamer's booth, and a wall had literally appeared around them, complete with what looked like a shimmering energy shield.

Weiss wasn't even looking at them at first, concentrated on the image of her older sister on the screen, before she turned to the wall with a growl. "Their fighting my sister?!"

The 'ding ding' sound was heard again, followed by a clonk, as Swift clearly didn't enjoy Dreamer practically antagonizing her.

"Don't blame us! Blame the guy who wrote this!" Swift called out.

"Who wrote this again?" Ruby asked, hoping to get her besties anger targeted at someone else.

"Phoenix Champion." Swift answered, clearly not phased by the idea of throwing his friend under the metaphorical bus.

Weiss started muttering dark things about what she would do to Phoenix if she met him… ironic considering what's going on in Phoenix's own reality at the moment.

 **"The hell?" Skull asked, "She's an Atlesian Specialist, the hells she doing playing security guard?"**

 **"Who might you be?" Joker asked as he put his hands in his pockets.**

"Is he really just dismissing my sister as a non-threat?" Weiss growled in anger at Joker's action.

"Joker's always like that. No seriously, he always does that when in conversations." Dreamer chimed in.

"She needs to chill out and get laid." Swift muttered to Dreamer, though Blake heard him and resisted the urge to snicker.

Dreamer's amused snort told her he agreed.

 **The woman narrowed her eyes, "Atlesian Specialist Winter Schnee, I'm here to bring you in for your breaking and entering, as well as robbery."**

"Is it just me, or did she sound like this was...personal?" Yang blinked.

 **"Schnee?" Joker asked, "How's your father been doing?"**

Weis groaned, annoyed that apparently the thieves had done something already to her family.

Dreamer let out a cackle again. "When the Phantom Thieves of Hearts pay you a visit, you come out a changed man. Whether you like it or not."

Everyone was just confused as to what he meant by that.

 **Winter narrowed her eyes, "I'm not the one who's going to be answering questions here." Winter said, "But I'm going to be bringing you in, get them!"**

 **One of the AK200's lifted it's rifle to begin firing, however Skull was faster as he rushed in to kick the 200 in the face, knocking it back and messing up it's aim before smashing its head with his club.**

 **The other aimed at Joker, only for it's gun to ripped from it's hands by Panther's whip, and was soon destroyed as well by gunfire coming from Fox's weapon.**

"Epic faaaail!" Dreamer laughed again. "Thieves take Knights!"

 **Winter glared at the offending group before rushing in to attack Joker, who jumped to the side to dodge her initial stab and quickly switched his weapon to dagger mode to block a slash from her.**

 **Winter pressed her weapon against Joker's until she was knocked slightly to the side by a shotgun blast from Skull, allowing Joker to back flip away and shift his weapon into a pistol to fire at her.**

 **Winter pulled a second, smaller blade from the first one and used both of them to block the bullet's until Joker's clip ran dry.**

"She's certainly doing well against them." Ozpin noted.

Weiss smiled in pride at her sister, until...

"They're going easy on her." Dreamer said, and they could almost hear the vicious smirk he had from behind the wall, while Weiss scowled towards the wall.

 **Winter then created a Glyph that summoned an Alpha Beowolf that charged at the group while she got back up.**

 **Noir smirked and pulled her grenade launcher off her back and fired once, blasting away the Summoned Grimm.**

 **"Why don't you take off your mask." Winter growled, "Stop hiding behind those things like the criminals you are and turn yourselves in."**

 **Joker smirked, "Fine, I'll take off the mask." Joker said reaching up to his mask, "Just remember you asked for it."**

"Oooh. She in trouble now~" Dreamer laughed. "You should NEVER remove the masks of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts."

Weiss scoffed. "How could removing their mask help them?"

"Maybe they have horrible faces that could make your eyes melt when you look at them?" Nora said, followed by Swift and Dreamer laughing at her idea.

 **Winter raised an eyebrow at this and braced herself for anything Joker could pull.**

 **"Come forth, Arsene!" Joker shouted as he tore off his mask, the mask shattering and burning away in blue flames, Jokers face was also still covered in blue flames, obscuring his identity.**

Everyone's faces could best be summed up in three words.

What. The. Fuck?

 **Winter jumped back at the sudden appearance of the flames, but soon enough that didn't matter as a chill ran down her spine as a sinister laughter filled the garage.**

Dreamer was cackling like a mad man now. "I am thou, thou art I!" he laughed.

Some looked at the wall in confusion, wondering what Dreamer was on about now.

 **Blue flames emerged from behind Joker, which formed a rather intimidating figure, it was larger that Joker, it had a black torso like a vest with a white cravat on its neck, its arms were covered in a long sleeves red vest that reached its clawed hands, it's legs had on leggings that covered it's entirety of the legs, but not the waist and had boots with blades posing as long heels, two large black feathered wings on it's back, a ridiculously tall top hat on it's head. Said head was completely covered by a sinister black mask with red eyes and mouth and had two long horns curling to the front of it's face.**

"From the sea of the soul I come!" Dreamer was now sounding like a mad chanter, though nobody really paid him any mind, all of them too focused on the being that Joker had seemingly called forth.

"PERSONA!" Swift shouted out, getting in on Dreamer's craziness with a laugh.

No one was listening to them, too focused on the summoned being, wondering what it was, while Qrow and Ozpin were wondering if it was some kind of Grimm, and suddenly thinking they might be wrong in thinking that they weren't on _her_ side. Everyone's attention was quickly brought back when Ruby let out a surprised sound, as on the screen, Joker grabbed hold of a chain connected to Arsene.

 **"Arsene! Eiha!" Joker commanded, which caused Winter to focus once again on the fight, only for a red and black mass of energy to burst up from below her, tearing out a chunk of her Aura and knocking her back down to the ground.**

"Critical hit!" Dreamer said enthusiastically.

"Or maybe she's weak to curse damage." Swift added in a mutter.

Blake looked at the wall, wondering what he meant by Curse.

"You'll learn later Blake." Swift muttered, surprising the faunus girl.

 **The being Joker referred to as Arsene faded as Joker's mask reformed on his face, and while Winter was on the ground the five thieves shifted their weapons into their respective gun forms and pointed them at Winter's head, surrounding her and keeping a decent distance to prevent her from disarming them should she retaliate.**

Dreamer suddenly cut the music and replaced it with a rather serious sounding tune (Insert P5 OST: Talk).

Several of them gulped thickly, as suddenly the tension in the air felt thick enough to cut with a knife. And even Weiss looked worried for her sister now. Not that anyone could blame her. She was seeing her sister being held at gunpoint by several thieves who looked ready to blow her head off.

"Relax, they don't kill." Dreamer waved off.

That did little to help.

 **"What's the Atlas Military doing here?" Joker demanded, "Last I checked they don't exactly do mercenary work."**

 **Winter scoffed and looked around, noticing her predicament as her Aura wouldn't exactly be able to hold up if they started to open fire, "We aren't, but when Goldan came up to us saying that is was the Phantom Thieves that were targeting him we decided to make an exception just this once." Winter admitted.**

 **"So the reason you're playing security guard is because it's us?" Noir asked, "Don't know know what Goldan did less than half a month ago?"**

"What did he do?" Ruby asked curiously.

"Give it a minute." Swift answered.

 **"I don't care about that!" Winter snapped, "I volunteered the moment I heard it was you all."**

"Javert!" Dreamer actually jumped up and pointed at Winter, before falling back down into his booth. Everyone looking at him in confusion, even Swift.

 **"Really? You're still on about that?" Skull asked, "Sheesh that was almost half a year ago, lay off it already, besides shouldn't you be thanking us for what happened afterwards?"**

Now they were VERY curious as to what the thieves had done..

 **"Thanking you!?" Winter shouted, "You-"**

 **"Goldan recently robbed the Chieftain of Kou Kuana just a few weeks ago." Fox said suddenly, "While he can't do anything now that Goldan has returned to Atlas, because Atlas favor's it's rich and human over the poor and the Faunus, we can."**

" _The world is once again deceived, by justice unwavering~_ " Dreamer randomly sang at that point.

Blake was actually angry when she heard that "He did what?!" she asked loudly.

"Uh, Blake? Something the matter?" Yang asked her partner in confusion.

"The chieftain is my father." Blake said simply, getting a few wide eyes from the others.

 **"So, were you hired to steal it back then?" Winter asked.**

 **"No, we came of our own choice." Joker said, "In fact Oracle should have sent General Ironwood incriminating evidence about Goldan by now."**

 **"What?" Winter asked surprise.**

 **At that moment the garage door to the outside is busted down by a black van backing up into it, the black van has a yellow stripe going down the middle, it also curiously had a cat tail and cat ears poking out of it.**

Dreamer seamlessly cut off the tune and switched back to "Life Will Change".

However, everyone was staring at the van in confusion, with Blake once more giving the screen a blank look that questioned everything.

 **The back door of the van burst open to reveal a woman with long orange hair wearing a mask that looked like large black goggles with orange lenses, she wore a skintight black bodysuit with fluorescent neon green glowing stripes and matching black boots with neon green soles.**

"Betcha's that's Oracle." Nora said suddenly.

"What gave it away? The big goggles that look like eyes?" Dreamer chuckled.

 **"Get in!" The woman shouted, her voice revealing that she was Oracle.**

Nora whooped at getting it right.

"She looks kinda like she walked out of one of those...sci-fi movies." Jaune couldn't help but comment.

 **"Don't need to tell me twice." Skull shouted, blasting the ground near Winter to keep her off balance and allowed the group to jump into the van.**

 **"Who's driving?" Panther asked.**

 **"Queen." Oracle said.**

 **The groups' heads then swiveled to the woman at the steering wheel, she had short brown hair in a bob cut, she wore a skintight black leather suit that is worn with a long black scarf, shoulder and knee pads with spikes with white gloves on he hands, on her face was an iron mask that covered her upper face with cut out's to reveal her reddish brown eyes.**

Everyone looked at the outfit and came to the same conclusion.

Don't piss her off.

 **"Oh crap." Skull said.**

 **"Guys you better hold on!" A boyish voice called from within the front of the van, "We all know about Queen's road rage when driving out."**

To everyone's surprise, the speaker seemed to be...a dashboard? It took a few seconds for that to sink in.

"You're kidding, right?" Yang asked the wall, completely bewildered.

"Nope." Dreamer said. You could hear the laughter threatening to escape.

"But...that...the VAN is talking?!" Yang sputtered.

 **"Quit complaining Mona, we don't have time for safe driving." Queen retorted as she hit the gas pedal, sending the Van that was apparently Mona driving ahead at full speed, the tracks were soon covered by the falling snow, making tracking them impossible.**

And with that, the screen went dark, but not before leaving a message. 'Take your heart'

"The van… can talk." Yang repeated, still hung up on that.

"And its...Mona. One of their members. They've got a talking van for a member…" Pyrrha added, holding her head. The confusion was starting to make her head hurt.

"What the hell was that Arsene thing he summoned though?" Qrow said in a bit of worry and confusion.

"They really didn't hear us earlier did they?" Swift whispered to Dreamer in surprise.

"To be fair, they were too busy staring. That and Arsene DOES kinda look like a ...you know…" Dreamer mused. "He is kinda red, black and white." He then shook his head. "Well, that's the end of the trailer. Answers will come soon enough, so do be patient." he said to the assembled guests.

"How soon?" Ruby asked.

"Basically as soon as you start reading." Swift said with a smirk as he tossed the book to Ruby who caught it.

"Right about…now," Dreamer chuckled.

 **\- break -**

 **Thank you everyone for reading the first chapter of our new Reading story. Hope you all enjoyed it and see you all next time.**


	2. Chapter 1

**TDN: Wow, all we did was post the trailer and already we're getting highly positive reviews. Thank you everyone for your support!**

 **Swift: I kind of hate this a bit because once more, this is a story that blew up in a few days, and it's not from my main writing series… YES I'm still pissed about the Shinobi to Knight thing, alright?!**

 **TDN: Yeah, I know the feeling. Half the time the stories I wrote that got popular were the ones that I WASN'T planning to have as a 'main story'. Well, that's life sometimes. Just take what comes with it. Anyway, let's begin the chapter!**

-break-

"Alright, bring on the show!" Dreamer cheered from his booth, having conjured up a tub of popcorn.

"You gonna share that or do I have to make my own?" Swift asked as he eyed the popcorn.

"Sure. It's a bottomless tub," Dreamer said...right before a torrent of popcorn started spilling out from under the tub. "I didn't mean that literally!" Then the tub resealed itself, the popcorn that spilled vanishing.

Swift simply grinned before sticking his head into the tub of popcorn, pulling it out a few moments later… and it was a dragon head, it's maw full of popcorn with several more pieces speared on the horns.

"If I were anyone else, that would have been terrifying...and pretty funny. Still pretty funny though," Dreamer chuckled, while their guests watched in odd amusement.

"Wait, hold up, he's a dragon?" Yang asked as she pointed at Swift.

Surprisingly, Swift actually answered, though his voice had a watery echo to it "I got it from my father, well, the sane part of him."

Before anyone could ask what he meant, he pressed a button that made a large air horn sound out.

Dreamer chuckled at that, but decided enough is enough for now. "Alright, let's get started then," Dreamer said.

As Ruby started to read, Dreamer immediately started playing a song.

 **[OST: Persona 5: Aria of the Soul]**

"Ah...Aria of the Soul. Classic," Dreamer sighed in nostalgia.

Sneakily, Swift hit a button on the board, shifting the song to the dance version for a few moments, with him bobbing his head.

"That one's a good one too, but not the one we're using right now," Dreamer chuckled slightly before switching the song back.

Weiss smiled as she listened to the song, closing her eyes, though she did stop and stare when the dancing version played, before smiling as it went back "It's a soothing melody." she said in content.

"Like I said, it's an Aria for the soul. It's supposed to be soothing," Dreamer nodded. "Helps too its one of them soft opera songs."

"Do you have the sheet for it?" Weiss asked, with Swift pulling them from… somewhere, and passing them to her, which she accepted with a nod as she looked them over before setting them down.

 **Akira Kurusu, a young man with shaggy black hair woke up and noticed he was definitely not in his bed, nor was he wearing what he went to sleep in. He was wearing what he knew to be his winter casual wear, a black jacket over a white v-neck shirt, with blue jeans and grey pants.**

"He looks pretty… normal." Yang said plainly.

Blake narrowed her eyes "Wait, he's Joker." she said as she recognized him.

The others looked closer, and found that it was indeed the same thief from the trailer.

"Ya know, it's funny how easy it is to see through a secret identity when you got the fourth wall," Dreamer whispered.

"Well, people in stories are either usually too stupid for their own good, like say Ash Ketchum, or there's actually a good reason in the story why no one can make the obvious connection, like say Genjutsu from the Naruto series." Swift replied in the same hushed tone.

"Good point. Plus it would kill the story...logic be damned…" Dreamer admitted.

 **Looking around the room he noticed that it was almost entirely a shade of velvet blue, there were no windows in the room, but several beds, each one having someone he recognized on it.**

"Hm...simple room this time," Dreamer mused. "Wonder if Phoenix remembers some of the ideas I gave him for the Velvet Room later."

The guests blinked, wondering what he meant by 'this time'.

 **On the first bed he saw his friend Ryuji Sakamoto a man his age with short, but spiky blonde hair, wearing his usual winter wear, an open purple coat that had red stripes on the arms over a black shirt that had a yellow face emote face on it, he also had on black pants with a white stripe on the sides, and finished with yellow and white sneakers.**

Yang looked at him closely and found that, surprisingly, he was somewhat good looking, she didn't know if he was boyfriend material, but he looked good at least.

"Skull." Blake pointed out.

 **On the next bed was Ann Takamaki, a woman his age with long blonde hair that was tied into two ponytails, she was wearing a red jacket with a 'S' on the chest, it also had long pale beige sleeves on it, she was also wearing a white skirt over black leggings, and red sneakers.**

Jaune blinked "She looks like some kind of model."

Swift almost snorted out his soup at Jaune getting it right, making the others turn to him in confusion.

"Huh…" Dreamer blinked, honestly not expecting Jaune to be the one to guess that. Then again, Ann DID have the body for the job so…

"She's also Panther, isn't she?" Weiss sighed. "The long hair and color are obvious."

"Among 'other' things," Qrow muttered under his breath with an amused snort.

Swift then threw a plastic spoon at the older man "Don't talk about her body old man, she's WAY too young for you."

"Not to mention a LOT of the crap she went through in her high school years was due to someone liking her for her looks only," Dreamer added, shivering slightly at the memory of 'that guy'.

Qrow winced, both at the surprisingly hard throw which hit him right in the forehead, and the implications of Dreamer's words.

Everyone else probably had a similar idea as they winced as well.

 **On the next was Yusuke Kitagawa, a man his age with deep blue hair at a mid length, wearing a brown suit like shirt with thin black lines on it over a pink tinged shirt, he wore black pants and black shoes, dangling from his waist was a collection of keys, one's Akira never really figured out what the meaning of them were.**

"He seems...interesting," Pyrrha said, trying to word it delicately.

Swift chuckled "Try eccentric."

"Aren't most people like him at least a little eccentric?" Dreamer chuckled.

"And he's Fox, isn't he?" Blake deadpanned. Even if Fox had one of the more concealing masks, the hair and build were too similar to be a coincidence.

"He also sounds like my older brother Ryoma." Swift said with a chuckle.

 **On the next was Makoto Nijima, a woman a year older than him with brown hair in a bob cut, she was wearing a light blue coat that had two sets of buttons on it over a black turtleneck, and and black pants thigh high brown boots on her feet.**

"She's got this 'Don't piss me off' vibe to her." Nora noted with a small grin.

"Oh god tell me about it." Swift said with a groan.

"To be fair, anyone would have anger issues after the crap she went through. Seriously, what was that principal thinking making her 'deal with' a mafia who was extorting some of the students? She's the Student Council President, not the Police," Dreamer deadpanned.

"Even I wouldn't make my students do that." Ozpin said, not noticing the incredulous look sent his way by Swift.

"But you don't mind having them do it if they themselves want to, right?" Dreamer gave a meaningful look at Team RWBY, all of them looking away awkwardly.

"And I just noticed, but she's Queen." Weiss said to throw the attention off from her team.

 **On the next bed was Futaba Sakura, a woman a year younger than him with long orange hair, she was wearing a blue-green coat with a furred collar, however it was slipped partially down her arms, revealing she was wearing a black tank top under her white shirt, which also had it sleeves down her arms, she also had on black shorts that had a belt dangling from her right side, with black stockings over black boots. On a table next to her were her large round glasses.**

Everyone looked at her and found she looked somewhat like the cute nerd type, and they weren't wrong.

"She looks like she could be someone's younger sister." Ren noted idly.

"She could be mine for all we know, I mean, I got no clue who my parents are." Nora said with a laugh, not really caring about talking about how she was an orphan.

"Not likely," Dreamer snorted lightly in amusement.

"She's also Oracle." Blake said, it was easy to spot with the hair.

 **Looking around Akira was getting a bit worried until he noticed that on his bed there was a second person, Haru Okumura, his girlfriend that was one year older than him, with curly chin length auburn hair, she was wearing a slightly puffed gray coat with a wool collar and a pink skirt, as well as white leggings and rid shoes on her feet.**

"Huh, you know, she kind of looks, like a pampered girl sort of type." Yang said with a raised eyebrow.

"She's Noir, although I have to admit Yang, you are right." Weiss said, before she nodded.

"It's rather cute that she and the leader are dating in my opinion." Pyrrha said with a slight smile.

"Yeah, especially after her last relationship. Won't say too much, but let's just say, unhappy arranged marriage, and no, she didn't get married fortunately. She broke off the relationship first," Dreamer said.

Weiss groaned "It reminds me of the times my father tried to put Winter and me into those, thankfully mother was always on our side to prevent him from doing that."

Everyone gave her sympathetic looks at that.

 **Noticing there was someone missing from the group Akira looked around before he noticed a familiar school bag sitting next to his glasses, he unzipped it to reveal Morgana the cat/escape vehicle, Morgana was a black cat with a white mouth and white paws with a white tail tip. He wore nothing but a yellow collar.**

"Wait, escape vehicle?" Jaune said in utter confusion.

"You'll see," Dreamer chuckled.

"Awww, he's so cute!" Nora cooed.

"But if he's the last one...then...he's Mona…" Blake said, her face slowly turning more and more blank, as she struggled to find the logic. "He's the van…"

Everyone (even Ozpin) gained even more confused looks, while Swift and Dreamer were trying not to laugh at their faces.

 **After seeing the rest of the group known as the Phantom Thieves of Heart in the same room, with a calming tinge of velvet blue in the area, Akira knew where he was.**

Ozpin frowned slightly at this point. "Strange...none of their names follow the theme of color Remnant had adopted after the great war," he mused, which caught the attention of pretty much everyone in the room, especially since he was right.

"That is kinda odd. Think that means something?" Qrow frowned as well.

"A few possibilities come to mind," Ozpin nodded.

"Wait for it," Dreamer said, shooting down the train of thought before it got too far.

At the same time, Swift stuck a plate of pancakes in front of Nora, preventing her from spilling her idea.

 **"Welcome to the Velvet Room." Said the nasally and high pitched voice of the real Igor.**

 **Turning to the source Akira saw Igor, a man with thin arms and legs wearing a black suit and white gloves, with a balding head and mid length white hair near the back, the more noticeable features on his face was... well, the man's nose was almost as long as the man's whole hand. He was sitting at a square table in the middle of a small room ahead of him.**

"Ack! Creepy old guy!" Ruby jumped slightly, earning a few chuckles.

"He does look rather strange, especially that nose." Ren said.

"You get used to it. He's actually more or less the only character who ALWAYS appears in a Persona game," Dreamer chuckled.

"Well, him and some specific Personas." Swift added, leaning into a chair that appeared out of nowhere.

"Good point," Dreamer nodded.

 **"It has been a while has it not Akira." Came the voice of a woman beside Igor, a woman with long platinum blonde hair and glowing yellow eyes, she was a little short, and wore a velvet blue dress with a blue frilled head band like one worn by french maids, and it had to half butterfly clips on each side of the band, in her hands was a massively thick tome.**

"Wow, she's shorter than me." Nora noted with a slightly impressed tone.

"Well she's a kid." Swift muttered.

"By what standards?" Dreamer asked. "It's not like age really applies to her kind."

"By her voice and general body structure, even Neo, who's short as hell, has the figure of a growing woman, Lavenza doesn't." Swift whispered to him.

"Keep in mind, being formed from the collective unconscious, she's probably literally gonna stay that way forever," Dreamer whispered back.

"Still say she's a kid, besides, she's technically the youngest Velvet Room attendant." Swift added.

"Fair enough," Dreamer nodded. "Also, I still think she's the younger sister to all the previous ones. They'd already done that before, why stop now?" he chuckled at the end.

"It's confirmed in NG+ when you fight Caroline and Justine." Swift whispered.

"Oh yeah. I forgot about that," Dreamer nodded.

 **"Igor, Lavenza." Akira said nodding to the two.**

 **"It is good to see you again Akira." Igor said, "Granted we have not really met too often considering the circumstances of your journey."**

 **"Before we continue, I believe it would be best if we woke your friends." Lavenza said as she lifted her book, 'Le Grimoire' before abruptly dropping it on the table with a loud slam.**

Everyone jumped at the sound it made, even if they knew it was coming.

 **"Gwah!" Ryuji cried out before the sound of a thud was heard, him falling out of the bed.**

 **"Wha-!?" Ann cried out as she jerked upward.**

 **Makoto and Yusuke woke up with nothing more than a gasp.**

 **"I'm awake!" Futaba shouted as she lurched up.**

 **"Akira!?" Haru cried out, clearly we know who she was dreaming about.**

 **"MRRREEEOOWW!" Morgana cried out as he shot out of the bag.**

 **The sound even made Akira jump, and he knew it was coming, Igor on the other hand gave no reaction, save for grabbing the table with his free hand to keep it from shaking too much.**

"That thing is quite heavy, isn't it?" Dreamer mused, having jammed earplugs into his ears before the book hit. Even then he'd jumped a little.

"Maybe it's made of Mahogany." Swift said with a small smirk, hoping Dreamer would get the joke.

"I'm sorry, but the reference was lost on me," Dreamer apologized.

Swift shrugged.

 **"What the- Where are we?" Ryuji asked as he got up.**

 **"You are in the Velvet Room, Phantom Thieves." Lavenza said as several chairs appeared in front to the table Igor sat at.**

 **"Wait... is that the real Igor sitting there?" Ann asked as she took a seat.**

 **"I can assure you I am the real Igor." Igor assured, "I have called you here as my master has asked for a favor."**

"Their...master?" Qrow said slowly, eyes narrowing a bit. Maybe it was just how Igor talked, but the term didn't sit well with him.

"Oh don't worry, he's just the guy who made the Velvet Room." Swift waved it off.

"The guys a bit..weird," Dreamer said, trying to put it delicately. "But overall he has humanity's best interest at heart.

Qrow nodded slowly, but didn't say anything. He was still unsure.

 **"Your master?" Yusuke asked, "So you are not the master of this place then?"**

 **"No, I am merely its caretaker." Igor said, "My master however has chosen to step back from the affairs of the Velvet Room for a time, not directly helping unless it is absolutely necessary."**

 **"So why are we here then?" Akira asked.**

 **"As I have said, my master has asked for a favor." Igor said as Lavenza set a map on the table, "Take a look at this map."**

 **The group leaned into the map and looked at it closely.**

 **"This ain't a map of Earth." Ryuji said flatly.**

"Uh...earth? There's a map of dirt?" Jaune blinked.

"Should we explain this one or wait a bit?" Swift asked Dreamer.

"Wait a bit. I wanna see the look on their faces," he said in a whisper.

 **"These continents... two of them look similar to dragons" Yusuke said.**

 **"I can see that actually." Ann said.**

 **"This map." Igor said, "Is of a world known as Remnant, and humanity of that world is at risk of extinction."**

Dreamer was not disappointed when he paused the screen and nobody reacted...for a good 5 seconds. Then the statement sank in.

In a few words, everyone started asking questions at the same time, while Swift had ear muffs on while he drank some tea, waiting for them to stop.

Likewise Dreamer was casually munching on his popcorn as the barrage of questions continued for a few minutes. "Done?" he asked once they started to calm down.

Ozpin adjusted his glasses "I believe we are."

"Okay, the Phantom Thieves...not from Remnant. Earth is a world. OUR world to be precise, albeit a different version of it," he started. "On Earth, while it still has its problems, it doesn't have the major ones Remnant do, mainly no Grimm. We got no Grimm, no Dust, no Huntsmen Academies. Oh and no Faunus. No offense, Blake," he added the last one quickly.

"We have Faunus wannabes though." Swift said with a slight shiver before forgetting about that "Earth is also known as Gaia and Terra depending on who you ask… but aliens sometimes like to call it E-arth." he added with a laugh.

"Or better yet. Earf," Dreamer laughed. "Anyway, anymore questions?"

No one could come up with any questions.

"Moving on then," Dreamer said as he unpaused the screen.

 **"What?" Makoto asked, "What's going on there?"**

 **Igor waved his hand over the map, changing it to form shadowy figures with glowing red eyes, "The Creatures of Grimm," Igor said, "Dark beings that are attracted to negative emotions, they've existed in Remnant for centuries and humanity has adapted to combat them, however that is not the case for too much longer."**

Dreamer pressed a switch and a sound effect that sounded like 'DUN DUN DUUUUN' played.

A few of them gave him dry looks for the sound effect, while the others were laughing a bit.

"...you DO realize Igor just said you're all screwed right?" Dreamer pointed out flatly.

Cue 'Oh shit' faces from everyone.

 **"What do you mean?" Haru asked.**

 **Igor closed his eyes, "The Grimm have a leader." He said waving his hand over the paper once again, changing it to the vague shape of a woman with pure red and black eyes, "She's become active, gathered enough pawns you could say, leading the Grimm as though they were an army. However that is only the tip of the problem, and why I have asked you instead of other groups of Persona users." Igor said waving his hand over the paper once again.**

Ozpin narrowed his eyes, recognizing the figure, an act Qrow mirrored as well.

 **"The people of Remnant are divided into two distinct races." Lavenza said, "Humans and Faunus."**

 **"Faunus?" Morgana asked hopping onto the table.**

"...the cat can talk. Why does this not surprise me anymore?" Blake sighed.

"You're not the only one." Weiss said dryly.

 **"Yes, beings that look human in every way, but with the addition of having a single animal trait on their bodies." Lavenza said, "I myself have not fully determined what classifications of animals are not among faunus, as there are so many variations."**

 **Akira was the first to put the pieces together, "Faunus are treated poorly aren't they?" Akira asked.**

Blake sighed a bit. "He hit the nail on the head."

"Honestly it's dumb that they're treated so badly if you ask me, speaking from an evolutionary standpoint, Faunus are the next step from Humans." Swift said a bit bitterly as he thought of the mistreatment.

"You do realize that sounds kinda like Magneto, which mind you, in some worlds, is old bull-head's stance, right?" Dreamer point out.

"I'm not saying kill all humans, just that it's possible that centuries from now the species on Remnant will only be faunus." Swift said with a shrug.

"Fair enough," Dreamer nodded.

 **"Indeed." Igor said chuckling, "Rather astute of you to come to that conclusion, but yes, this internal strife has resulted in negativity that has truly rallied the Grimm faster than a single leader."**

 **"This racism among the two races has not only attracted the Grimm," Lavenza continued, "But in turn it has also caused internal strife that has boiled into blatant terrorism."**

 **"What!?" Ann shouted, "Terrorism!?"**

 **"Are they really fighting each other instead of a common enemy?" Futaba asked.**

"Yeah, no offense to your people, but what the hell were you guys thinking?" Dreamer deadpanned. "Couldn't you all have waited till after the Grimm were gone to start turning on each other? Or better yet, NOT fight amongst yourselves?"

"Dreamer, we're in no position to talk, unless you've forgotten Earth's history." Swift said.

"In our defense, WE don't have a legion of relentless endless human killing monsters that spend their days, weeks, everything, trying to reduce humanity, and by that I mean humans AND faunus, to a mere memory," Dreamer deadpanned.

Swift looked at him for a moment before raising a finger. "Neo-Nazis."

"...I guess they count. Okay, statement retracted," Dreamer conceded.

"What's a Neo-Nazi?" Ruby asked.

"Basically our version of Faunus Haters, except they hate anyone who isn't white." Swift deadpanned.

"I still don't get the point of that really," Dreamer sighed. "Guess it's true when they say there are only 2 things infinite. The universe...and the human stupidity."

Both Yang and Swift let out barks of laughter while Qrow chuckled.

 **"Unfortunately yes." Igor said grimly, "And because of this the Grimm have grown even stronger." Igor sighed as Lavenza removed the paper, flicking it back into a map.**

 **"There are figures in the Four Kingdoms of Remnant that have most of the racist blame pinned upon them." Lavenza said.**

 **"So... you want us to change their hearts?" Akira asked.**

Ozpin frowned at that. Even if they were being asked to help, something about that statement didn't sit well with him.

 **"Correct." Igor said, "Both sides of humanity can benefit much from a sudden stop in aggression from one or both sides. Furthermore by changing the hearts of one of the Grimm Queens pawns you could sway the hand of fate further to the side of humanity."**

"So, she does have underlings." Ozpin muttered at Igor's words.

 **"Wait, what about our lives here!?" Ryuji cried out.**

 **"Do not worry." Igor said, "My master has already prepared for this. Should you choose to assist Remnant doppelgangers of yourselves shall be sent back to your home to live your lives as if this meeting never happened."**

"Well that's pretty convenient." Yang said with a blink.

Swift took out a notepad and wrote the method down to remember it.

 **"Can we have a moment to think about this?" Yusuke asked.**

 **"Of course you can." Igor said leaning back, "Take all the time you need."**

 **The group of 8 pulled each other into a close huddle and after a few moments broke apart.**

 **"We'll help." Akira said, "But without the Metaverse we won't be able to do much about changing people's hearts."**

Cue looks of confusion again.

"What's the Metaverse?" Nora asked, confused, which was hard to see on her.

"Do we tell them now?" Swift asked Dreamer.

"The Metaverse is, bluntly put, a mental world that exists side by side with the real world. Inside the Metaverse, the thoughts and minds of the real world influence it, with people manifesting in that world as 'Shadows'. The unhidden thoughts of real people," Dreamer said. "As they're connected, changes in the Metaverse can affect the real world, and vice versa."

"Thus the Phantoms interact with the Metaverse to change hearts." Swift summed it up.

"Pretty much," Dreamer nodded.

 **Igor smiled, "My master is already working on reforming the Metaverse for your use." Igor said, "And do not worry about being undefended in Remnant, once you arrive you'll find that my master has already prepared several gifts for you."**

"So, they get their weapons from his master?" Ruby wondered.

"Not exactly, you'll see what I mean next chapter." Swift said.

"Which reminds me. I need to go look up some history and literature," Dreamer mused, pulling out his smart phone and started flipping through the internet.

Swift smirked and nodded in agreement to the idea, knowing where he was going.

The guests only looked at him in confusion.

 **"Also, your Yen will be of no use to you in Remnant." Lavenza said holding out your hands, "May I see your credit cards?"**

 **Everyone but Morgana quickly reached into their pockets and pulled out their wallets before pulling out several cards and handing them to Lavenza.**

 **"Thank you." Lavenza said putting the cards into her tome and closing it, "You'll be transported to outside city walls, a fair distance away in fact, once you arrive at the nearest city I will return these to use with currency that would be useful in Remnant."**

 **"Wait, outside city walls?" Ryuji asked, "Are you just throwing us to the wolves here!?"**

 **"Think about it for a moment you numbskull!" Morgana snapped, "If we showed up in the middle of a city how are we supposed to explain ourselves for showing up out of nowhere?"**

"They don't...get along, do they?" Jaune mused.

"Ryuji may as well be a dog, yes," Dreamer nodded.

 **Ryuji sat down at that, "Oh yeah, hadn't thought about that." He admitted.**

 **"We may need to think of cover stories for when we get to the nearest city." Yusuke pointed out.**

 **"Where will we arrive?" Haru asked.**

 **"You'll be arriving in the frozen kingdom of Atlas." Igor said, "Furthermore among those gifts my master will have for you are heavier coats for the weather."**

 **"Are you ready to go?" Lavenza asked.**

 **Akira nodded, before the room faded into a blue light.**

And with that the book snapped shut in Ruby's hands, but not before the next page shined a bit as words started to appear.

"And that's it for this chapter." Swift said with a slight smile.

"Any questions so far?" Dreamer asked.

"How old are they?" Pyrrha asked.

"By age? Oldest are Makoto and Haru at 20, followed by Akira, Ryuji, Ann, and Yusuke at 19, then Futaba at 18. Morgana...if I got my math right, he's probably...6?" Dreamer calculated.

"Sounds about right. You see, Morganna was created by Igor, so he wasn't born normally, however he has the mentality of a teenager." Swift added on.

"He also has the dream of becoming human," Dreamer added. "Probably cause he spent most of his time thinking he was human before he remembered he wasn't."

Everyone nodded, but it was clear they didn't really understand.

-break-

 **TDN: And that's a wrap for this reading chapter. The next chapter will come when it comes, so for all our readers, please be patient. We've all got stuff to take care of in real life.**

 **Swift: In other words: Bugger off you freaking bloodsuckers! *beats the fans away with a broom***

 **TDN: Yep, we'll still keep writing, but in our own time. But all in all, thank you for the support.**


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